LagrangePoint - Brad Howarth

SmartCompany - Hot 30 under 30

This year's list of the best young entrepreneurs aged 30 or less is now online at SmartCompany. I was responsible for finding about half of them this year (not saying which ones tho ...). A few repeats from last year, but quite a few new entries, particularly from companies in the digital sector, such as Hard Hat, Native Digital and SmartPath. If you think you should ahve been on there but weren't, remind me again in about 9 months time ... You can check out the full list by clicking here.

ZDNet Bootstrappr: Decoding the American media nightmare

I've known Melbourne-based entrepreneur Antony McGregor Dey for a while now, and always been impressed by the energy and enthusiasm that he channels into his business, QMCODES. So it was great to have a chat recently and learn that his participation in January's AIMIA and Austrade digital media mission to New York City was bearing fruit. QMCODES is the subject of my latest Bootstrappr blog for ZDNet and you can read it by clicking here.

Australia Anthill - How to stay on top

A recent column for Australian Anthill magazine just popped up in Google alerts, this one looking at the US company Adobe and its seemingly unassailable position as the leader in online multimedia content technology. The company is all too aware of history and the potential for all great market dominators to fall from grace ... so this column looks at some of the ways the company is striving to ensure that it doesn't lose its position in the face of increasing competition from Microsoft. You can read all about it by clicking here.

Digital Media - Are media companies really f***ed?

It's a provocative headline, but then it's a fairly provocative topic. The simple truth is that most traditional media companies are struggling to find successful online business models, and are a long way off matching their offline and online revenue streams. The headline is pulled from a quote that was given to me by media commentator, Newser.com founder and biographer of Rupert Murdoch, Michael Wolff, and summarises his position that these companies cannot adapt quickly enough to escape the inevitable future of diminishing returns. When I spoke to News' group director of audience and development, Joe Talcott, he agreed that News (like most other companies) was still a long way off finding the magic formula - but that the real crunch time for many media companies is still a long way off.

I can only hope he is right. As someone that makes their money from creating content, the thought that my work is worth 10 percent of less of its original value when transferred online is a little frightening ....

The story itself is not up on the web, but you can check out an unsubbed version by clicking here: Download Media Futures DRAFT

Stories in development - Asia Pacific trade and investment

Am working on a few different articles and am seeking expertise in a number of fields - so there may be a few more of these posts in the next 24 hours.

Right now however I'm looking for people with knowledge of international trade and development throughout the Asia Pacific region, specifically in the markets of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, India and Pakistan. While the consulates and trade commissions are an obvious starting point, I am really looking for commercial organisations and chambers of commerce that may be able to offer comment on how recent developments have changed the potential of these markets as export and investment destinations.

Any assistance appreciated.

ZDNet Bootstrappr: In the game for a casual $5 million

I popped in to the offices of North Sydney-based casual games developer 3RD sense last week to find out more about how this company had grown to take a significant slice of the casual gaming market. What I learned tho was that founder and CEO Colin Cardwell is looking to take a much bigger slice - provided he can raise the necessary $5 million he estimates he needs to do so. Casual games are big business, be they delivered via PCs, mobile phones or gaming consoles. You can read about his plans in my entry on the ZDNet Bootstrappr blog by clicking here.

AFR BOSS - Lean machines

The May edition of the Australian Financial Review's BOSS magazine came out last Friday. This edition contained a story of mine on Sun Microsystems' efforts to become a more environmentally-friendly enterprise. The company has been lauded by a number of institutions for both the changes it has made in its operations and in the products that it manufactures. The story is locked behind the pay-wall, but you can check out a draft version here: Download Lean machines

ZDNet Bootstrappr: Australia snares Silicon Valley wireless start-up

As I say in the opening line of the story, its amazing what a few million dollars can do for attracting attention. But by taking the lead role in a US$14 million investment round in the Silicon Valley-based start-up Quantenna, Southern Cross Venture Partners was able to open management's eyes to the capabilities of Australia's own wireless technology developers. Quantenna is now keen to open an R&D facility down here to tap into that skill set. You can read more about it in my latest post for ZDNet's Bootstrappr blog by clicking here.

ZDNet Bootstrappr: Manjrasoft's forecast: Cloudy but fine

A little while back Renai LeMay from ZDNet Australia asked whether I'd be keen to take on the duties of writing his site's blog on Australia's start-up IT community, Bootstrappr. It's a field that I've been interested in and writing about for a long time already, so it wasn't hard to say yes.

Anyway, the first entry went live last week, looking at the Melbourne-based grid computing start-up Manjrasoft. You can check out what I had to say by clicking here.

Each week I'll be profiling one or more new companies and writing about issues facing Australia's start-ups, such as raising capital and entering export markets.

Australia has a vibrtant and innovative start-up community, and I look forward to chronicling its successes - and inevitable failures - at Bootstrappr.

Nett magazine - IT's just not good enough

This month's edition of Nett magazine (May 2009, with the lads from GoGet car share on the front cover) contains my first contribution to the magazine, an investigation of Australia's IT infrastructure. The headline IT's just not good enough possibly sounds a little harsh, until you think what is required to keep this nation in the leading pack in the global economy.The global financial crisis might be putting the breaks on growth generally, but as conditions improve there will be a wave of countries wanting to reassert their positions, and rising states such as China, India, Brasil and Russia wanting to claim what they believe is theirs. And if Australia is ever to move away from its reliance on resources wealth and develop our expertise in services as an export 'commodity', the quality of our infrastrcuture is going to be crucial.

In this feature I spoke to a wide range of people to draw a picture of our information infrastructure, including Ron Webber at Broadband Expert, education and web consultant Damian Anderson at Acceleration, APAC education director at at Adobe, John Treloar, Online Banking Review's editor Charis Palmer, the head of the CSIRO's ICT Centre Alex Zelinksy, NICTA's chief technology officer Chris Nichol, web entrepreneur Jonathan Barouch, investor and Pearcy Foundation chairman Wayne Fitsimmons and telecommunications analyst Paul Budde. A lot of other folk helped out with contacts and information in this feature but weren't quoted in the end - thanks to everyone who assisted.

The story is not up on the Nett website yet, but should be shortly - in the meantime you can pick up Nett at most newsagents.

The next edition includes my feature on how greater connectivity (UPDATE: meaning access to Facebook, Blackberries, Twitter, etc) hasn't necessarily led to greater productivity.